Alice Cuddy,Senior international journalist, BeirutAnd
David Gritten
Reuters
Israel launched airstrikes on Beirut, Lebanon, after ordering hundreds of thousands of people to leave the city’s southern suburbs. No casualties were immediately reported.
The Israeli military says it is targeting Hezbollah across Lebanon, with southern Beirut considered a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group.
“The Defense Force launched a wave of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the southern suburbs of Beirut,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said on X.
Following evacuation orders, traffic jams formed on major northbound and southbound roads as panicked residents complied with the unprecedented general demand covering the region.
Before the latest strikes, Lebanon said more than 120 people had been killed and nearly 700 injured by airstrikes since Monday. At least 90,000 people are displaced.
The Israeli order came after the army also asked all residents of a large part of southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border, to leave on Wednesday, ahead of a planned ground incursion.
Hezbollah warned Israelis living within 5km of the Lebanese border to leave their homes.
Mohammed al-Khaouzam was among those stuck in traffic trying to flee Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday afternoon.
“We come from Bir Hassan. They [the Israeli military] “I issued a warning, that’s why we’re leaving,” he told the BBC.
Khaouzam, originally from Syria, is heading north with his wife and children. He described Lebanon as his “second country”.
“May God help everyone. May God help all the Lebanese,” he said through the window of his car.
A woman driving north said her children were in Beirut and had called her to tell her about the warning to leave the suburbs of Chiyah, Burj al-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Hadath.
She said she was going to stay with them, hoping it would be safe.
“Is there anywhere to go?” What should I do? she asked.
Food kitchens and shelters in the capital have warned they cannot cope with the number of people displaced.
Reuters
Lebanese authorities said at least 102 people had been killed in Israeli strikes over the past four days. No deaths have been reported by Israeli authorities.
Israeli aircraft have carried out waves of strikes against Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley since Monday, when the group launched rockets and drones over the border in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
That dragged Lebanon into war between Israel, the United States and Iran, just 15 months after a ceasefire deal ended more than a year of fierce fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that devastated the country.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem vowed that the Shiite militia and political party would confront Israel “to the greatest sacrifice, to the utmost limits,” adding: “We will not surrender.”
This comes a day after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said he was “determined to eliminate the threat posed by Hezbollah and would not stop until the terrorist organization is disarmed.”
The Israeli military said Thursday it carried out overnight strikes against several Hezbollah command centers in Beirut, which it said were intended to be used to plan and carry out attacks against Israeli troops and civilians.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least three people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on vehicles on the main road leading to the city’s airport.
A residential building on the outskirts of Beirut was hit Wednesday evening, but residents said they believed no one was there at the time.
Several people told the BBC on Thursday morning that they had left the building earlier this week and were staying elsewhere for security reasons, pointing out that the area had been targeted in the past. They said they did not know what the target was or did not want to comment on the target.
“We moved Monday out of fear something might happen. Today we were supposed to come take a shower and get our stuff and we found this,” one woman said as she and her husband looked at the wreckage.
“Thank God it was just our business and not us.”
The Israeli army has not commented on this strike.
However, he indicated that he had killed “several Hezbollah terrorists” who were operating in southern Lebanon during the night.
The Lebanese National News Agency later reported that the mukhtar, or mayor, of the southern town of Kfour and his wife were killed in an airstrike on their home.
It said Hamas official Wasim Attallah al-Ali and his wife were also killed in the Baddawi Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli.
The Israeli military said it targeted Ali because he was a commander in Hamas’s military wing and was responsible for training its fighters in Lebanon.
The BBC also visited the southern town of Sidon, where an apartment building was destroyed in an Israeli strike.
The Israeli military issued an evacuation order in advance, calling the building “Hezbollah military infrastructure.”
Residents living nearby said they believed everyone left the area after the warning and that no one was killed.
“There was nothing here. Just people,” Ahmed, the cafe’s owner, called from the balcony of an apartment next to the destroyed building.
“Show the Israelis that there is nothing. Show them that we are civilians,” one woman said as she passed by.
A man sitting nearby said: “There are displaced people who came, so maybe that’s why?
French President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to hostilities, calling it a “moment of great danger” for Lebanon.
“Everything must be done to prevent this country so close to France from being dragged into war again. The Lebanese have the right to peace and security, like everyone else in the Middle East,” he said in a message on X.
Macron added that he had spoken with “the highest Lebanese authorities in order to establish a plan aimed at putting an end to the military operations currently carried out by Hezbollah and Israel on both sides of the border.”
“Hezbollah must immediately stop its fire against Israel. Israel must refrain from any ground intervention or large-scale operations on Lebanese territory,” he said.
The president also said France would immediately send humanitarian aid to the tens of thousands of displaced civilians.
On Monday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned Hezbollah’s actions as “irresponsible” and said his government had banned the group’s military activities.
Hezbollah leader Qassem insisted he had a “legitimate right” to bear arms and accused the government of turning “against the resistance to perfect its mistake and align with Israeli demands.”
Under the 2024 ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States and France, Hezbollah was to move its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 km (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure there. Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army continued to carry out near-daily strikes on targets it claimed were linked to Hezbollah after the truce, accusing the group of trying to reclaim its military capabilities. Israeli troops also continued to occupy at least five positions in the south.
